I was just wondering about the situation at US west coast ports, which are currently in a state of lockdown, with ships laying idle at port, unable to unload their cargoes. As far as I know, there's not much chance of an immediate resolution of the labor dispute. This is supposedly costing the US economy a billion dollars a day. Given the situation, are air freight carriers like UPS or FedEx benefiting? Is there any chance of a redeployment of aircraft in the Western US? Thanks in advance for your replies.

Oh yes they are benefiting.....this lockdown was supossed to have happened in July or August so everyone importing material from Asia stocked up in supplies, but when it did not happen we all lowered our guards sort of speak, now this slowdown and subsequent lockout caught us with our pants down and we are in need to fly a ridiculous ammount of material from Asia, needless to say air freight companies have jacked up their prices and the avalability of cargo space on airliners is ver very very limited.

As for UPS and FedEx who use their own planes I do not know, for urgent material they are slower so we try to avoid them.

Kids!....we are going to the happiest place on earth...TIJUANA! signed: Krusty the Clown

Canadian ports on the west coast are not affected. A lot
of ships which are are currently in eastern Pacific are
planning to dock at Canadian portst, if the situation on
the west coast of the US does not resolve itself soon.

It will mean extra cost to truck those shipments from
Canada back into the US... but still a lot cheaper than
shipping by air freight. (at least for cargo that's not time-
sensitive)

On the other hand, many Asian airlines are already
planning to add a few more cargo flights... particulary
from China/Korea/Japan/Taiwan/Singapore to the USA.